Research Activities at DH-CHEER
There are many factors influencing cancer development, morbidity and mortality other than the disease itself. The Dorothy I. Height Center for Health Equity & Evaluation Research (DH-CHEER) examines how differences in culture, behavior and lifestyle; access to health care; use of early detection and screening programs and genetics contribute to the increased risk of cancer and chronic diseases for certain groups. DH-CHEER is exploring these factors through innovative research that combines laboratory, clinical and behavioral methods.
DH-CHEER utilizes the holistic approach to understand cancer and other health-related issues facing minorities and the medically underserved. DH-CHEER staff and researchers know that the cancer problem among individuals with different ethnic, social and economic backgrounds will not be resolved as a single issue, and that research addressing minority health must be broad, inclusive and culturally sensitive.
Research planning groups that include MD Anderson’s physicians and scientists, an External Scientific Advisory Board, and a Community Advisory Board are essential to the development of specific research programs and to DH-CHEER's mission to eliminate health disparities.
Research Focus
- Understand ethnic differences in cancer incidence, mortality and response to treatment in order to better understand the impact of cancer on different populations.
- Examine the relationship between diet and cancer and how differences in metabolism among certain ethnic groups may increase their risk for developing diseases.
- Assess environmental exposures in the home, community and workplace that may increase some individuals’ risk of getting cancer more than others and pose a threat to overall health.
- Determine if cultural influences, perceptions and behaviors in respect to cancer and chronic diseases, health care and clinical trial participation contribute to poorer health outcomes.
- Collect, monitor and analyze incidence, mortality and other epidemiological data for specific cancers in ethnic groups.
- Recruit and retain individuals for clinical trials to improve access to cancer prevention and cancer care programs among targeted populations.
Research initiatives will continue to yield important information that can be used to develop new therapies and better screening guidelines to meet the specific needs of all populations, thus reducing the overall incidence, mortality and morbidity of cancer.
Click on the project category headings below to learn more about CHEER's research projects.
- The Bioethics Initiative for Equity in Health Care and Research
- CAN DO Houston
- Comparison of Hormone Levels and Dietary Habits Among African American and West African Women in Houston, Texas, and West African Women in Ibadan, Nigeria
- Enhancing Minority Participation in Clinical Trials (EMPaCT)
- End-of-Life Treatment Preferences of Latino Medicare Beneficiaries with Cancer
- Establishing Comprehensive National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Centers of Excellence—PEACE (Project EXPORT, a Center of Excellence)
- Filipino Health Needs Assessment
- Health and Cancer Issues in the South Asian Community
- Houston Breast Cancer Taskforce (HBCTF)
- Mexican American Children Study
- Ovarian Cancer and Nutrition Education Study (The ONE Study)
- Physician Perceptions about Parenteral Hydration in Latin America and Spain: A Survey of Physicians Affiliated with the Latin American Association for Palliative Care (ALCP) and the Spanish Society for Palliative Care (SECPAL)
- SECURE Gulf Coast - Science, Education, and Community to Respond to Emergencies in the United States Gulf Coast Region
- Asian Youth and Tobacco Control
- African American Nutrition for Life Project (A NU LIFE)
- African-American and West African Women’s Health Project
- Asian American Health Needs Assessment Project (AsANA)
- Biomarkers of Genetic Susceptibility in Environmentally Exposed Mexican-American Migrant and Seasonal Farm Worker Women and Their Children (from Mother to Child) Project
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Demonstration Project
- Caregiver Assessments of the Quality of Home Hospice Care: A Comparison Across Three Ethnic Groups
- Circle of Sisters: Raising Awareness of Native American Women to Breast Cancer
- The Environment Community Assessment Project (E-CAP): Galena Park
- The Fresno Environmental Survey of Needs and Opinions (FRESNO) Project
- Health Care of Asian Hurricane Evacuees
- Male: Female Birth Ratios and Phthalate Levels in Two Texas Counties—One Urban, One Rural
- Perceptions of Cervical Cancer Among Asian Americans
- Prostate Cancer and Health Disparities Research
- Women’s Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) Study